Introduction: Post-slavery and citizenship struggles in West AfricaThe history and legacies of African slavery and contemporary social and political mobilizations have received increased scholarly attention in recent years. 1 These studies are often situated in the context of 'post-slavery' , a conceptual approach comparable to that of postcolonialism in that it equally stresses the resilience and legacies of ideologies, mentalities and social hierarchies of slaveholder societies in a chronological 'after' , despite the legal abolition and official 'end' of slavery. Benedetta Rossi (2015: 304) has criticized this field of scholarship for its linear historical view when considering the transition from slavery to emancipation and the tendency to define the moral illegitimacy of slavery (and other extreme forms of dependency) as a universal norma normative stance not reflecting the reality of many post-slavery societies, notably in Africa. In certain contexts, legal and normative pluralism account both for the partial perpetuation and reactivation of master-slave relations despite abolitionist legislation and for conflicting understandings and discourses of emancipation. This conceptualization of post-slavery conforms with the situation that can be observed in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, where slavery and hierarchical distinctions among descent-based status groups seem particularly unaffected by colonial rule and abolitionist policies. Whereas 'traditional' forms of slavery have gradually receded due to extensive ecological, economic and social transformations, descent-based status hierarchies largely persist in the country. The same holds true for many other states in the extended region. Eric Hahonou and Lotte Pelckmans (2011) take a comparative perspective on West African anti-slavery movements and interpret them as 'citizenship struggles' of slaves and slave descendants in the context of the conflicting political ideologies of democracy and aristocracy, which can be mutually contextualized within such plural legal landscapes. They therefore propose a social